THE MASK 2 (LATE '90s)

WHAT WAS THE PLAN?Following the huge success of The Mask (1994) starring Jim Carrey, (not surprisingly) a sequel was in the works with Carrey to reprise the dual role of Stanley Ipkiss/The Mask.OH.SO WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED?The Mask director Chuck Russell expressed an interest in returning to helm a follow-up to The Mask and he had plans for Stanley Ipkiss to team up with reporter Peggy Brandt (played briefly by Amy Yasbeck in The Mask).In the original script for The Mask, Peggy had been killed off after double-crossing Ipkiss, but her death had been cut from the final edit of the movie, so that the door was left open for her character in the sequel.With numerous characters and plots from the comics offering potential story ideas, the sequel would have presumably picked up one of these to form the basis of the film’s narrative and would have then let Carrey steal the show again with a series of madcap facial expressions. BUT WHAT DID HAPPEN?Following the release of The Mask, Nintendo Power magazine announced that a sequel was in the works and even offered a competition prize of a ‘walk on part’ to the winner, but despite New Line clearly hopeful of a follow-up Jim Carrey declined to reprise the role and development on The Mask 2 stalled.With The Mask 2 going nowhere at the big screen an animated series based on The Mask hit TV screens instead and featured a number of ideas that would have more than likely featured in the sequel (the most obvious one being Stanley and Peggy’s friendship).However, still keen to release a sequel to The Mask, eleven years later Son Of The Mask (2005) was released, with ‘comedian’ Jamie Kennedy in the title role.Without Carrey’s involvement Son Of The Mask was a very loose sequel that had almost nothing to do with the original and it quickly became an embarrassingly bad box-office flop.WAS THIS SUCH A BAD THING?The fact that Son Of The Mask was so bad did kind of dampen the legacy of The Mask, however thanks to the lengthy period of time that the ‘sequel’ remained in Development Hell there was at least enough distance between the films release dates so that it didn’t completely ruin the classic status of the original.It wasn’t all that surprising that Jim Carrey declined the opportunity to reprise the role of The Mask in a potential sequel, as he was being offered different parts in other movies, so a retread would have done nothing for him.On reflection he was probably even more pleased with himself that he didn’t take part in Son Of The Mask, because it was awful.BUT WHAT IF?If Carrey had said yes and The Mask 2 had appeared, then there was the possibility that it would have been a poor retread of the original.On the other hand it would have meant there would have been no Son Of The Mask.NO SON OF THE MASK.Think about that for a second.Let it wash over you.Let that idea permeate the senses just long enough to imagine what that would have been like.Now think about it again.Can you imagine a world where Son Of The Mask had never existed?Can you?It would have been a paradise.